1930s
The 1930s also known as the "Nineteen Thirties" abbreviated the "Thirties" or "'30s" was the decade that began Wednesday, January 1, 1930 and ended on Sunday, December 31 1939. It was the fourth decade of the 20th century. The decade started off economically unsteady, with the stock market dropping early in 1930. However, late in 1930, stocks and the economy dropped more, and this time it didn't get better. People began to feel the effects of the plunging stock market in 1931, and the situation grew progressively worse until reaching the low point in 1933. The gloomy conditions that arose led to a religious revival and the rise of conservatism that rejected the liberalism of the 1920s, which began to be viewed as a decade of "sin." After 1933, the economy began a gradual recovery which wouldn't reach the level of prosperity of 1930 until World War II. In both Central Europe and Eastern Europe, Fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism dominated as the solution, which adopted war-oriented economic policies, such as Stalin's Five Year Plans, all of them described as totalitarian regimes. In East Asia, the rise of militarism occurred. In Western Europe, Australia and the United States, more progressive reforms occurred as opposed to the extreme measures sought elsewhere. Roosevelt's New Deal attempted to use government spending to combat large-scale unemployment and severely negative growth. Ultimately, it would be the beginning of World War II in 1939 that would end the depression. Technology Many technological advances occurred in the 1930s, including: : Empire State Building is opened.]] * The world's tallest building (for the next 43 years) was constructed, opening as the Empire State Building on May 3, 1931 in New York; * On March 8, 1930, the first frozen foods of Clarence Birdseye were sold in Ringfield, USA. * Ub Iwerks produced the first Color Sound Cartoon in 1930, a Flip the Frog cartoon entitled: "Sticks"; * In 1930, Warner Brothers released the first All-Talking All-Color wide-screen movie, Song of the Flame; in 1930 alone, Warner Brothers released ten All-Color All-Talking feature movies in Technicolor and scores of shorts and features with color sequences; * Air mail service across the Atlantic Ocean began; * Radar was invented, known as RDF (Radio Direction Finding), such as in British Patent GB593017 by Robert Watt in 1938; * The first BBC television broadcast occurred; * In 1933, the 3M company marketed Scotch Tape; and * In 1931, RCA Victor introduced the first long-playing phonograph record. * In 1935, the British London and North Eastern Railway introduced the A4 Pacific, designed by Sir Nigel Gresley. Just three years later, one of these, No. 4468 Mallard, would become the fastest steam locomotive in the world. *Nuclear fission discovered by Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner and Fritz Strassmann in 1939. * The Volkswagen Beetle, arguably the most popular automobile in the world, had its roots in Nazi Germany in the late 1930s. The car would prove to be successful, and would be produced relatively unchanged well up into the 1990s. War, peace and politics * Socialists proclaim The death of Capitalism * Rise to power of Adolf Hitler and Nazism in Germany. * In the Soviet Union, agricultural collectivization and rapid industralization take place, and the Great Purge occurs, in which much of the Soviet political and military establishment is eliminated. External links *The Dirty Thirties — Images of the Great Depression in Canada